Friends in High Places [Paperback]

In Donna Leon’s ninth novel featuring her celebrated protagonist, Commissario Guido Brunetti finds himself caught up in a typically Venetian problem: red tape over renovations. Visited by a young bureaucrat, Brunetti learns that, officially, his apartment does not exist. The extra floor that was added years before was never approved. But what begins as troublesome headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that takes him into unfamiliar and dangerous areas of Venetian life, and shows him, once again, what a difference it makes to have friends in high places.

Praise forFriends in High Places:

Winner of the Crime Writers Association Macallan Silver Dagger Award for Fiction

“Beautifully written and immaculately plotted,Friends in High Placesis further proof still that Leon can do no wrong.”—Scotsman

“Carefully plotted and full of colorful as well as sinister characters, this is crime writing of the highest order: powerful, relevant and all too full of human failings.”—Guardian(UK)

“All Donna Leon’s novels are excellent in their evocation of place, while in Brunetti she has created a character who . . . becomes more real in each book.Friends in High Placesis, however, by far the best, and marks a quantum leap forward.”—Evening Standard(London)

“Leon’s best so far . . . I don’t think I could really understand a crime fan who didn’t love Donna Leon.”—Scotland on Sunday

“Leon is a skilful plotter . . . Brunetti is a nicely shaded creation, a moral man who is also all too human.Friends in High Placesis a splendid read, clever and provoking.”—Observer(UK)

“Friends in High Places[is an] elegant plƒE